Today's News

RICHMOND – Down goes Tebow.
The bill, that is.
Legislation to let home schooled students join public school sports teams was defeated Feb. 14 in the Senate Education and Health Committee, where similar bills have failed in previous years.
The perennial proposal from Del. Rob Bell (R-Albemarle County) would achieve that by prohibiting public schools from joining an interscholastic governing body, such as the Virginia High School League, that bars home schoolers from public school sports.

Gas prices have soared 35 cents in the past 30 days in Virginia.
In fact, prices went up a whopping 11 cents from Friday to Monday, and were at an average $3.61 for a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline.
According to the American Automobile Association, the high prices drivers are seeing at the pump are a function of the age-old tension between supply and demand, and strangely enough, both are down.
Crude oil supplies are also down in the wake of OPEC’s decision several months ago to lower production by nearly one million barrels per day.

Galax Elementary School has officially won this year’s UCT Gives Back contest. The school’s Cooperative Care Center for Exceptional Children will receive a $10,000 prize, which will be used to buy materials for the students.
“It has been a whole community event... one of the most uniting things I’ve seen in Galax in a long time,” said GES Assistant Principal Sonia Truitt, noting that an outpouring of support came in from the Galax, Carroll County and Grayson County communities.

HILLSVILLE — Carroll real estate values decreased during the recent reassessment for the first time in decades, Assessor Janie Harrison reported to the county supervisors on Feb. 11.
Harrison began working in the assessor’s office in 1983, she said at the monthly county board meeting. “In 30 years, I have never seen a decline in market until now. Our overall decline was about 12.23 percent — that’s the overall land book total.”

By SHAINA STOCKTON, Staff
On a recent morning, Tammy Harmon saw a strange sight on her way to work.
“Way down the street, I saw someone walking very slowly,” said Harmon, director of Hope House of the Good Shepherd in Galax. “I didn’t think much about it, and I went inside.”

INDEPENDENCE – The president of the Grayson Highlands Parent Teacher Organization has asked the county school board to consider putting art classes back into the elementary schools in the upcoming budget.
Amy Donnely was the only speaker during a public hearing on the proposed 2013-14 budget for the Grayson County Public Schools System last week.

By SHAINA STOCKTON, Staff
In keeping with his promise, Galax Rite Aid pharmacist Dustin Thomas sat on a chair while coworker Amy Parsons sheared off his locks with a set of clippers. Since the goal was to shave him completely bald, Thomas told her to “have fun with it.”
And she did.
“It’s not every day you get to shave your boss’ head,” laughed Parsons. She grinned mischievously as another employee replayed a video of the haircut taken with her phone.

HILLSVILLE — While Carroll County officials have applied for funding to replace the heating and air conditioning system at the high school, the idea to build an auxiliary gym there may have to wait awhile.
The Carroll supervisors briefly discussed both project ideas as amendments to a five-year capital improvement plan at their regular meeting Feb. 11.